Chapter 2

Inside the building looked like someone had tried and failed to make a factory room look like a pleasant lobby, the walls were painted white and covered in fancy awards and pictures in neat black frames but that didn’t do anything to conceal that the wall was plain undressed concrete underneath and the ceiling was a good twenty feet up and hung with great thick cables and strange tracks like a giant toy train set suspended a few feet from the ceiling.

A woman called for everyone’s attention and as the crowd started to quiet Sarah tried to push her way forward so she could see who was talking, ending up crammed up against Crystal again. The woman stood waiting for silence was simply enormous, her carefully tailored dark business suit was quite obviously corseted and it only emphasised her enormous ass and titanic breasts, which were pushed so high she looked like she could practically turn her head and use them as a pillow.

‘If I can have your attention for a few moments I have a few things to say and then we can get you all settled into your work placements and get on with today’s schedule,’ she said in a rather deep voice that suggested very firmly that this woman was used to being obeyed. ‘I am Cindy Olsen and on behalf of the company I would like to welcome you all to Olsen family dairies.’

‘She’s supposed to be a real genius,’ Crystal whispered quietly.

Well she sure isn’t head of the company because of her looks Sarah thought to herself tartly as she tried to listen to the big woman as she droned on about the buildings facilities like some overweight promotional advert.

‘Most importantly of all,’ Cindy was saying, ‘I need to introduce all of you to Bertha the buildings computer, are you there Bertha?’

‘ONLINE AND AWAITING INSTRUCTION CINDY’ a mechanical sounding female voice chimed in from a speaker up near the ceiling.

‘My father designed the first Bertha over ten years ago and we have been improving her design ever since,’ Cindy announced proudly, ‘The first bertha was capable of controlling six automatic sheds but our current design controls over thirty doing the work of several hundred people and dealing with every function of the farm, Bertha even calculates her needs and orders the feed and supplies direct so all we need to do is keep an eye on her and make sure she has everything she needs.’

The big woman took a step to one side and gestured at a big industrial looking doorway hung with thick flaps of semi translucent rubber instead of a normal door, which parted to allow a strange mechanical device to trundle into the room on the ceiling track.

‘In a moment Bertha will start calling out your names if you would step forward and she will identify you and log you into the system, then she will take small groups of you on a guided tour of our facilities so you can see the work we do firsthand. Please don’t step forwards until your name is called.’

As Cindy stopped talking the computers vaguely synthetic voice began calling out names, as each girl stepped forwards the odd machine scanned each of them with a green light before confirming their identity and asking them to wait quietly while their group was assembled. After the computer identified ten girls the doors opened again and Bertha instructed the little group to enter the next room to begin their tour.

‘Isn’t this place awesome,’ Crystal gushed her face alight with wonder at the high tech system, ‘I mean I knew Olsen’s were high tech but this place sounds incredible.’

‘Yeah sounds a real hoot,’ Sarah replied a little snappily as she listened for her name starting to feel even more lost than before.

‘CRYSTAL MATHEWS’ Bertha’s mechanical voice called out.

‘Oooh that’s me, got to run I’ll see you later,’ the big girl said giving her a friendly smile before stepping forward, ‘don’t worry about the job I’m sure you will do fine.’

That’s easy for you to say, you actually want to be here Sarah thought as she watched the computer scan her friend, strangely instead of telling her to stand with the others it had already called out it instructed her to speak directly to Miss Olsen.

Whatever they spoke about Crystal certainly seemed to be happy and after a few minutes of quiet conversation she gave Sarah one last excited wave goodbye and followed Cindy out of the room, looking almost petite hurrying along in the wake of the gigantic farm owner.